Mitsubishi quality is below industry average according to JD Power. This chart below shows the number of problems reported per 100 vehicles, so that means that Mitsu is having an average of more than 3.5 problems PER vehicle that they sell.


http://www.jdpa.com/presspass/pr/images/2002141a.gif

 

i believe that, i have had about 3 myself that the dealership had to address....a couple of them making my car not even work

 

Mitsubishi being under the industry average is understandable, but Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo?? A little hard to believe.

 

Audi is just a glorified VW, Volvo is own by Ford now. I don't understand why Mercedes is having issues now either, but oh well, but friend told me MB has always had reliability issues.

 

true that most new volvos are really cheaper than old ones.

Well, all except the S80 (and probably the XC90). We have a 1989 740, a 1998 V70 ans a 2001 S80 at home and the V70 is really cheap compared to my old 1989 and the S80. I'm sure they reduced build quality on those "cheaper" models..

It's surprising BMW isn't there.. I know some that had BMWs and they had so many problems it was crazy for the price of the car.

Etienne

 

BMW is represented on the scale. It has a bar between jaguar and lincoln

 

Well this is not for the Lancer.. you should read a little more on this

The lancer wasn't even here in 1998!!!

there is the text that goes along the image from the first post: http://www.jdpa.com/studies/pressrel...ID=692&CatID=1

wow we find tons of reports on this site..

"This is the second consecutive year that Mitsubishi Electric ranks highest in quality among factory-installed AM/FM/cassette/single CD players. Mitsubishi Electric supplies this audio system to Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Mitsubishi, Plymouth and Volvo, and is followed in this segment ranking by Panasonic, Clarion and Pioneer. " ( from http://www.jdpa.com/studies/pressrel...ID=474&CatID=1 )

In the initial quality study: "Korean manufacturers Kia and Hyundai are the most improved corporations in 2002, improving by 21 and 19 percent, respectively, over 2001. Hyundai Motor America has demonstrated the largest five-year initial quality improvement at 42 percent. Other above-average five-year quality improvements include American Isuzu (39%), Mitsubishi Motor Sales (38%) and DaimlerChrysler (27%)." ( from http://www.jdpa.com/studies/pressrel...ID=625&CatID=1 )

So if in 1998 they were below average, then made a lot of improvements, they shouldn't be that bad for 2002 model-year!

Etienne

 

I work with representation data often and I recognize a scewed report when I see one....I bet you could doctor the numbers and reporting scheme enough to make it look like Mitsu quality is better than BMW. Horribly bad study....

 

I'd be interested in learning more about how they conducted this study. A lot of times, I see some manufacturers issuing recalls on some small issues (just to be on the safe side) while other manufacturers avoid taking the blame by not to issuing recalls (even if they are big problems). So does this also skew the figures for "quality" and "problems per 100 vehicles" if the manufacturer doesn't admit that there is a problem?

 

The JDP Initial Quality survey is conducted by sending survey's to a random sample of new-car owners. I got one for my Spec V for example, but didn't get one for my Galant though. I assume the study above, which concerns long-term durability, is done the same way. Not sure how relevant it is though. I mean, since 1998 entire product lines have changed, new ones added, and old ones done away with. In Mitsubishi's case 1998 wasn't a good year anyway because of the huge Galant/Eclipse Ball Joint recall. One thing like that could skew results pretty badly.

 

Mr. Space and Mark F bring extremely important points to light.
In addition, since this is a survey, we do not know the response %, we do not know the demographic data of the respondents (age, location, etc.), the sample size is quite small and we get very little info on what was actually complained about.
How relevant and accurate is this info really? You, the car buyer decide.